Miesięczne archiwum: Sierpień 2018

In 2018, the omnichannel strategy seems to be the standard. All major brands having a chain of offline stores have merged online and offline sales to some degree. But except for combining IT systems, can we combine customer experience as well? Strong yes! And this is the role the mobile application should play for an online store.

Why didn’t it work out the first time?

The market boom for e-commerce mobile applications took place several years ago. However, the technology couldn’t keep up with the ideas. Applications for online stores were very simple. They were limited practically to the possibility of checking the products of a given brand and only sometimes there was an option to place an order or use a discount. However, the biggest disadvantage of mobile applications was the lack of a permanent connection with the sales system.

The applications were just layers to the system, with no real connection to it. Most of them didn’t have any processes of constant and automatic updating of information about products, availability or discounts in the online store. Working on the update itself was time-consuming and eventually, the brands stopped doing it. As a result, after the first installation, most customers stopped using apps. The website, along with its responsive design, has fulfilled the customers’ needs for mobile online shopping for the next few years.

Currently, the purchase process requires the presence of the company and its products in several sales channels. In order for the mobile application to be part of a multi-channel strategy (omnichannel) and to fulfil its role, it must always be up-to-date. This can be ensured by full integration with the brand’s e-commerce system. Therefore, the whole sales process, for both the online store and the mobile app takes place in one administration panel, which makes it much easier.

Available solutions and their capabilities

There are several types of mobile applications available on the market, such as native and hybrid. Hybrid solutions allow you to instantly create apps for two operating systems at the same time. IONIC is an interesting tool for creating hybrid applications. This rich framework uses the power of the native functions of the mobile device, such as: camera, microphone, location services or TouchID, and a blend of web technologies. On the other hand, the Cordova tool is responsible for the native part. Angular, HTML or SCSS are used in the case of IONIC. This framework allows you to create mobile applications for Android and iOS operating systems. IONIC has a huge database of components, allowing you to create advanced mobile solutions

Modern applications have many solutions that influence the creation and development of omnichannel strategies as well as sales. The most important of them include:

– checking the product availability in offline stores with a mobile app; more and more people check the product online; however, once they know what they want to buy, they do it offline; a good solution is to enable customers to check the product availability in the given offline store;

– checking the product availability in the online store while shopping offline; very often omnichannel is defined as the permeation of the internet world into the world of offline sales; however, the mobile application can extend these possibilities, for example when it’s equipped with the barcode scanner. functionality works when the customer in an offline salon, wants to read more information about the product himself or wants to order a different variant (color, size, model – depending on the product); then the only thing he has to do is to scan the barcode and the application itself will transfer him to the specific product in the online store; such a solution is also in line with the currently popular self-service model used by the younger generation. Then the mobile application acts as an additional store employee, thanks to which the customer can receive the necessary information about the product;

– push notifications. There is a significant difference between push notifications and text messages. According to research, they are much more often read and they encourage better interaction. Through integration with the e-commerce system, they can contain information about the status of the order, the status of the complaint or specifically tailored offers to the user.

Custom ideas

There are other possibilities to use mobile app. Shop service can identify customers in individual places of a salon. In this vision, you just need to implement beacons. They will show the approximate location of the customer, as well as other data, e.g. the history of shopping in the online store, so that they can be used by store employees to build offers in real time. For example: when the client passes the shoes, the mobile application via beacon registers his presence, the e-commerce system checks if the client has recently browsed the product on the internet, and finally displays a special offer on the TV screen in the salon.

The second option will benefit mainly customers. Retailers will be able to send personalized messages to them regarding special offers, discounts or events. Sending such messages will be possible only after the client agrees to analyze its purchases, preferences or locations. This solution will definitely not suit 100% of customers, but those who will agree and will demonstrate a large purchase commitment – may become natural brand ambassadors. Such a solution will also increase the involvement of the communities – clients or trade partners of the specific brand. In result, this system will be able to link different components of our client’s purchasing process in cause and effect way: from products, through history, to the location. For example: we can send information about the discount for an associated product with an earlier purchase, available only in the salon which the customer visits most often – that means we combine sales, e-commerce, mobile phones and location.

However, it should be remembered that such data analysis requires a client’s declared consent. For this purpose, the mobile application must clearly indicate such intention. Therefore, the role of the brand is to show the client a number of benefits of expressing such consent.

The mobile application for online stores has gone a long way. The first versions were too simple, then the brands didn’t have an idea for its full use. Now all components of the new omnichannel dimension are available. All you need is a decision of retail chains and a person who would implement it in the retail world.

The i-systems company has invested PLN 1 million in the GamerHash app. The application is extremely easy to use and allows you to convert unused computing power into digital products for its users or payouts in Bitcoins.

GamerHash is a platform for Windows systems that opens up new opportunities for users of home computers.

– When buying a computer, usually for a couple of thousands PLN, its full potential is not used. Especially when browsing websites, watching movies or listening to music. Our PC in such tasks simply „gets bored” – explains Patryk Pusch, Chairman of the Board at GamerHash. – We wanted to use the resources that users already have – the computing power, and give them the opportunity to exchange it for some benefits. At current Bitcoin rates, the benefits value is up to PLN 300 per month. Such benefits include Netflix or Spotify premium accounts, cinema tickets, GSM top-ups, top-up on player platforms, e-vouchers, virtual currency in games or simply PC games – adds Pusch.

The obtained computing power through GamerHash is used for legal cryptocurrency mining, and in the future will also be used for CGI (computer-generated imagery) rendering or machine learning. This means that shared computing power can be used to process animations and special effects scenes or to influence the faster acquisition of knowledge by self-learning computer programs.

GamerHash online store – product page

Technological support

In addition to direct investment, i-systems will support GamerHash technologically. As the company has vast experience in the area of transaction systems, it will develop the e-commerce part of GamerHash.

– At i-systems we always want to be close to the latest technologies. Investing in GamerHash is a natural step towards blockchain solutions for us. We believe that those solutions have a much wider application than just financial operations. We also think that distributed applications will significantly affect the way of creating modern IT systems – says Paweł Szewczyk, Vice President at i-systems.

Tar Heel Capital Pathfinder has also invested in GamerHash. This is part of Tar Heel Capital, which supports innovative and forward-looking technological projects at the seed and start-up stages.

Upcoming holidays do not mean e-commerce actions will slow down. Actually, on the contrary, it is the best time to prepare and implement new solutions before the peak period for most e-commerce companies. Here is an overview of the last quarter in the daily life of i-systems.

New projects

The second quarter of the year brought a number of new contracts. Except for those strictly connected with online sales and customers switching to continuous integration, it is worth paying attention to new analytical projects. The analysis was made for a company specializing in thermal insulation distribution and a company that supplies tools and machines for construction and heavy industry. These contracts show great demand related to trade and distribution solutions.

Trends in system development

Among the most interesting trends observed on the market and while working on particular systems, we can distinguish widely understood integrations. Our recent work in this field covered, for instance, warehouse and accounting programs of the Asseco group. A large part also concerns and will concern integration with the marketplace, which is an external system that aggregates offers from different places. Integration with marketplace means a couple of challenges, such as two-way inventory integrations or automatic display and removal of offers, according to the previously adopted sales logic.

Strategic development of the organization

In the second quarter of the year, representatives of i-systems participated in several business and technology events, such as Retail Marketing Forum, XIV Targi eHandlu [en. XIV E-commerce Fairs], E-commerce Innovations, E-commerce B2B and E-commerce Universe. During enlisted events, we focused on educating the market and presenting the effects of research & development team. Continuous integration was the most frequently discussed topic. It is a response to quickly changing market expectations, as well as the desire to have a constantly developed and up-to-date e-commerce system.

Conversations during E-commerce Fairs

Internal projects for quality improvement

Among the internal projects developed in the last three months, the Progressive Web App can be distinguished. This solution is designed to provide the customer with the best experience, regardless of which device he or she uses. This idea at first glance has a lot to do with Responsive Web Design. However, the solution has a deeper purpose than just displaying things correctly on every available device. Its main goal is to significantly improve the efficiency and speed of the system, by changing the organization of tasks performed by its frontend and backend parts.

Selected awards

At the beginning of April, i-systems was awarded in the FT1000 ranking. The ranking is being prepared by the Financial Times – one of the most opinion-forming global economic and financial magazines in cooperation with Statista Research Institute – a leading provider of data on markets and consumers. The company’s place in the ranking is determined by the increase in revenues that the company reported in the years 2013-2016.

In addition, it is worth mentioning the appearance of i-systems in the ranking of the 500 best providers of B2B solutions from Poland and Ukraine, responsible for the design and development of IT systems. The ranking was prepared by the Clutch agency.

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